Continental Congress approved American flag design

Today is June 14. On this date:

1775

The Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.

1777

The Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag.

1940

German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

1943

The U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.

1954

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

1968

Dr. Benjamin Spock and three other peace activists were convicted in Boston of conspiring to encourage young men to evade the draft during the Vietnam War. (The verdicts were later overturned by an appeals court.)

1968

The Iron Butterfly single “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was released by Atco Records.

1982

Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.

1985

The 17-day hijack ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists seized the jetliner shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece.

1986

Death claimed Broadway librettist Alan Jay Lerner in New York at age 67; Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges in Geneva at age 86; and “Wild Kingdom” host Marlin Perkins in suburban St. Louis at age 81.

1990

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld, 6-3, police checkpoints that examined drivers for signs of intoxication.

1993

President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1999

About 15,000 NATO peacekeepers spread out across Kosovo, including a convoy of about 1,200 U.S. Marines.

2017

A rifle-wielding gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding House Whip Steve Scalise and several others; the assailant died in a battle with police.

2017

Fire ripped through the 24-story Grenfell Tower in West London, killing 71 people.